Obamacare

Floor Speech

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Mr. DAINES. I want to thank the gentlelady from Minnesota.

In fact, my family roots in Montana began in Minnesota. My great-great-grandmother was in Minnesota. She came from Norway and then pushed westward. I think she heard the skiing was a little better out in Montana and continued westward and homesteaded out there as a widow with seven children, just north of Great Falls, Montana.

Well, every day it seems we hear about yet another aspect of ObamaCare that is getting delayed or exempted or ignored. Two months ago, it was the employer mandate. A few weeks later, it was announced that the administration had delayed a significant consumer protection in the law that limits how much people may have to spend on their own health care.

A Washington Post headline from Monday read, ``One week away, ObamaCare's small business insurance exchanges not all ready for launch.'' And a recent POLITICO story summarizes perfectly what a disaster ObamaCare has become:

The ObamaCare that consumers will finally be able to sign up for next week is a long way from the health plan President Barack Obama first pitched to the Nation.

Millions of low-income Americans won't receive coverage. Many workers at small businesses won't get a choice of insurance plans right away. Large employers won't need to provide insurance for another year. Far more States than expected won't run their own insurance marketplaces. And a growing number of workers won't get to keep their employer-provided coverage.

With key parts of the President's health care overhaul set to start on October 1, one thing is certain to supporters and opponents alike: ObamaCare is not ready for prime time. Rather than fulfilling the President's promise of, ``If you like your coverage, you can keep it,'' ObamaCare has become a tangled web of broken promises, backroom deals, with no relief for American families and hardworking taxpayers in sight.

This is no more apparent than with the Office of Personnel Management's decision to grant Members of

Congress and their staff with a special exemption from a provision in ObamaCare. This decision demonstrates how deeply broken Washington is, and it unmistakably suggests that Congress is focused more on their self-interests than the interests of the American people.

That's why I've signed on to the No Special Deal for D.C. Insiders Act and the James Madison Congressional Accountability Act, both of which would reverse the OPM rule. It's absolutely unacceptable for Washington to impose new burdens and costs upon the American people and then carve out special loopholes for itself.

Until this failed law is fully repealed, Washington must live by the same rules that have been forced upon the American people. This train wreck of a law will raise health care costs, force businesses to close their doors, and hurt Montana's access to quality health care.

In fact, ObamaCare could increase underlying insurance rates by up to 158 percent for the average 27-year-old Montanan and 149 percent for 40-year-old Montanans, according to a recent analysis by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. And in August, the KULR-8 news station in Billings, Montana, reported that, according to a Montana health expert:

It's entirely possible that there will be businesses that go out of business solely because of this law.

I was in Missoula, Montana, this summer, meeting with local business owners who are concerned about how ObamaCare will affect not only their businesses but their employees' benefits and access to affordable care. ``We don't know what to do,'' Opportunity Resources' Carrie Purdy told me. She shared how her employees are at risk of having their health benefits decrease and premiums increase next year, as Opportunities' own projections show an $800,000 increase in insurance costs for 2014 alone. Unsurprisingly, a recent poll shows that two-thirds of Montanans believe that the President's health care law should either be delayed or stopped altogether.

I was elected to represent the people, the people of Montana. Two-thirds of Montanans say the law should either be delayed or stopped altogether. And that is why I am on the floor here today, because this is the House of the people. We're the voice of the people, and we are standing up against the President's law.

As Montana's sole Member in the House of Representatives, it is my job to ensure the Montana voice is heard, and Montanans are speaking loud and clear. Mr. President, why don't we allow individuals to opt out for the first year? You cut a deal with businesses to push the mandate out for a year. Let the American people opt out, if they so choose, for their first year. If they like their health care coverage today, let them keep it, as you promised would be the case when you pushed for this law a few years ago.

ObamaCare is deeply flawed. It's a law that hurts Montana, and it must be stopped. And I will continue fighting to repeal it, delay it, take it apart piece by piece so that Montanans never have to face the full consequences of the President's failed health care overhaul.

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